“Before using Freelancer.com, I had never outsourced any job overseas,” says Chester Bryan, sole owner of DJ Depot Canada, a DJ equipment retailing business. He recently bought shares in a management consulting company to take care of all the web design, app development, graphics and brand development requirements of the business. “As a person who embraces technological advancement I was no stranger to hiring programmers to develop applications to allow me to do things the way I felt they should be done.”

When he initially ventured into outsourcing programming overseas, his initial goal was to develop a smart shopper application that would allow shoppers to receive promotional specials; gain access to quick financing options, product reviews and information; simplify and expedite the checkout process; and register or review gift wishes from friends. Ultimately, he wanted these functions to be accessible via smartphone, home computers and kiosks stationed in shopping malls and other high traffic areas.

“Before joining Freelancer.com, many of the ideas I conceived were parked due to the high costs of hiring programmers domestically,” he adds. “Although I had a full-time programmer on staff the projects I wanted to move forward with were much more than he could handle in the time frame I had to work with.”

Chester Bryan recently chatted with Freelancer.com about his experience as a newbie on the site and what makes him come back for more.

You’re new to Freelancer®, having joined only last March. How has your experience been thus far?

Freelancer® is an amazing platform. I was impressed with the ease of use, the number of available qualified freelancers, and the quick turnaround in getting responses for my posted job. The available menu options during posting made the process simple, quick and easy.

How did you hear about the site?

Freelancer.com was not the first service I joined; however, I soon made the switch. A couple of freelancers on one of your competitor sites suggested that if I decided to use their service they would prefer that I listed it on Freelancer.com and have it awarded to them there as they would be charged a lower processing rate. I made the final decision after my IT manager told me about his great experience on the site. He was comfortable and satisfied with both the process as well as the quality of work he received from the freelancers he had worked with.

In your emailyou were raving about a freelancer you hired, AwesomeArt, for a logo design.

It was an absolute pleasure working with AwesomeArt. My experience with AwesomeArt set the tone and expectations for future transactions on the site. From the initial contact to the timely delivery of a spectacular job AwesomeArt delivered courteous service, prompt follow-ups, attention to details and as the name says, awesome art. I have rehired AwesomeArt for several other jobs and will continue to do so. My decision to hire freelancers is based on a feeling of sincerity and an interest in delivering above employer expectations that I pick up in our initial conversations.

You have spent US$6,000-US$7,000 as an employer on Freelancer®. Why do you keep coming back?

From quickly finding and comparing options to easily organizing the process of elimination and ultimately making a decision to move forward, Freelancer® has not only saved me a significant amount of money and time but also simplified the process of outsourcing overseas. By my estimate, the work done on Freelancer.com would have been around 50% more expensive had it been done by designers/developers in North America.